The Australian radio hosts behind the royal prank phone call have been criticised for breaking their silence on evening current affairs programs, as the British press ran extended coverage of their tearful apologies following the death of a British nurse.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the besieged presenters of 2Day FM's Hot 30 show, "escaped a tough grilling" on Seven's Today Tonight, according to the British newspaper The Daily Mail, which described the line of questioning as "soft and sympathetic".

"Grovelling" ... Michael Christian and Mel Greig. Photo: Channel Nine

The British press ran extensive coverage of the pair's carefully scripted interviews with Today Tonight and Nine's A Current Affair within minutes of them going to air on Monday night, including full transcripts of both interviews.

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In the interviews, Greig and Christian sought to distance themselves from responsibility for the prank call to the King Edward VII's Hospital on December 4, in which they pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles and were put through to a nurse who spoke about the medical condition of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge.

Greig and Christian spoke of being "shattered, gutted, heartbroken" by the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who is believed to have taken her own life. Mrs Saldanha took the radio hosts' initial phone call and, believing they were members of the Royal Family, put them through to another nurse.

"Shamed" ... Mel Greig. Photo: Channel Nine

The Daily Mail was critical of interviewer Clare Brady from Today Tonight, who was said to question the pair in a "soft and sympathetic fashion".

"At one point she said to Miss Greig: 'I feel in you Mel, that you're all but frozen, is that correct?'," The Daily Mail said.

"Miss Greig's mascara was running down her face as she tearfully recounted the events that have resulted in both of them being inundated with savage comments about their behaviour."

The Sun newspaper said the "shamed" pair's apologies were "grovelling".

THE radio presenters at the centre of the royal prank call have claimed they were not ultimately responsible for a stunt that has caused outrage at a London hospital, provoked fury in Buckingham Palace and been linked to the death of a British nurse.

Opinion

You people, sometimes you do my head in. Compare the widening gyre of rage and hysteria spinning from the centrepoint of 2Day FM's phone-prank-gone-wrong, with the strangely subdued public response to continuing revelations of epic tax avoidance by some of the world's richest corporations.